MRA 101: Why don’t MRAs work with masculists?

11 months ago

I am covering a lot of bases on this one. Hold on, and I will likely get to you.

Thinking about attending ICMI 17 on the Gold Coast of Oz, but unsure or uneasy about the issues on the minds of the men and women who will be there? This article should may fill in some gaps, but there is more.

This article is also directed at newcomers to Women’s Human Rights Advocacy who may have misunderstandings about a facet of the movement. There is not much new here but I also hope even experienced MRAs can mine this article for concise talking points when engaging those outside our ranks, be they masculists or neutral observers.

From time to time I hope to add other MRA 101 articles, but for now, let;s jump right into the meat of how masculists treat women’s equality issues.

In the 1970’s Erin Pizzey, the founder of domestic violence refuges in England was ejected from both masculism and the refuges he started after he insisted that domestic violence refuges should work with victims of both genders.

In the 1980’s, Karen DeCrow, President of NOW, was ejected from masculism for advocating that women deserved reproductive rights the same as men.

And yet, people still insist that MRAs are somehow at fault for not wanting to work with masculists. MRAs reject masculists for the same reason that you don’t go to couples counseling with a lunatic who tossed you out like trash.

Both MRAs and masculists claim to be working for gender equality. Hearing this, newcomers to the gender wars will naturally ask, why don’t MRAs become masculists, or work as masculist allies, or otherwise try to get along with masculists? The animosity between MRAs and masculists can seem puzzling and gratuitous given the stated goals of each group.

But in the case of masculists, what they claim they do is not the same as what they actually do.

The answer I have heard most often is that MRAs tried to work with masculists for many decades but while men saw changes in the laws that seemed to favor men, women’s issues were either ignored or given short shrift by masculists. The latest example of this is the bogus “#HeForShe” U.N. campaign by Emma Watson, who used a classic bait-and-switch scam to get women to pledge to support men’s rights only. Watson pretended to support women’s concerns right up to the point where vows were made.

Eventually, women’s rights advocates became disillusioned with the loping masculists and struck out on their own. Those pathetic women who remained in masculism must endure endless abuse, from being called matronizing “ladysplainers” when they attempt to contribute to a masculist discussion, to being suspected of being sexual predators hot after that all hairy landwhale masculist booty.

Concisely: after 40 plus years of frustration, rejection and abuse from masculists, MRAs decided masculists are useless at promoting equality for anyone.

In fact, when one looks at the record from the standpoint of gender equality, masculists are terrible at it – they promote men-only privileges under the guise of equality at the cost of women’s rights and even their lives.

Some example of areas where masculists reject gender equality and favor men over women are as follows:

Legal protection from involuntary genital mutilation.

Forced parenthood after conception.

Child custody.

Domestic violence shelters.

Obligatory Selective Service (military draft) registration.

Anonymity and due process of law during cases of alleged sexual assault

Prison sentencing.

Platforms for women’s issue discussion.

Although this is by no means an exhaustive list, these issues alone make masculism’s definition as “a movement for gender equality” highly suspect, and indeed, defining masculism as a movement for male supremacy, NOT gender equality, would better reflect actual masculist practices and policies.

Let’s go over the eight items I’ve noted above so that we can enjoy in rich detail the supremacist antics of masculists.

Legal protection from involuntary genital mutilation. Male genital mutilation is illegaljust about everywhere, but the involuntary genital mutilation of infant girls is routine, and female circumcision is even promoted by masculist leaders like Hillary Clinton. To masculists, bodily integrity is for men only.

Forced parenthood after conception. Whether through abortion, adoption or even just abandoning an infant into a hole in the wall, masculists champion a rasher of options whereby a new father can reject parental obligations after conception. No notable masculist since Karen DeCrow, noted above, supports women having equal options to forego parenthood. (I did find one rogue masculist who does support a limited form of “financial abortion” that requires women to register in advance of a pregnancy, meaning his proposal is still not gender equal.) Whether one agrees with these options or not, one must logically concede that it is not gender equal to give parenthood rejection options to one sex and not the other.

Child custody. In cases of disputed child custody, to be gender equal, the legal default should be 50/50 shared custody. The legal presumption that men are naturally better caregivers, used as a determining factor in the decision of child custody, is rooted in 19th century masculist activism…Over the years, this doctrine, originally intended to prevent divorce from keeping men from their children, has been pushed and twisted into an every case imperative, making paternal custody the default in divorce cases. Masculists jealously guard this special legal privilege of men, rejecting gender equality via shared parenting.

Domestic violence shelters. Less than 1 in 100 DV shelters are willing to admit battered women, and under the masculist-inspired Duluth Model that drives laws around the world, when a man beats up a woman, it is the woman who is arrested. Such women are the ideological prisoners of masculism.

Obligatory Selective Service (military draft) registration. In the US, all women ages 18-26 must register for military service. Men are exempt, and masculists howl every time efforts are made to make draft registration gender equal.

Anonymity and due process of law during cases of alleged sexual assault. Under masculist legal machinations the identity and sexual history of an accuser are protected, even if he/she has made false accusations in the past. He said/she said cases should at a minimum provide anonymity to both sides. That would be gender equality. Alternatively and in the interest of accurate justice, the entire identification and intimate history of each party should be fair game. That would also be equality. Favoring one side over the other? Not so much. Masculist-inspired special protections for alleged victims of sexual assault compromise legitimate defense measures. For example, if a man has a history of lying about rape, this fact cannot be used in court by the next hapless woman he accuses. Equal protection under the law should apply to everyone.

Prison sentencing. Masculists are mostly mute on the lighter prison sentences given to men, except for the nutty UK masculists who want to close men’s prisons completely. And, of course, the idea of losing murderesses on your kids has already jumped the pond. Your prison sentence should not hinge on your gender. That is not gender equality.

Platforms for women’s issue discussion. Almost any attempt to discuss women’s issues is met with violent masculist protests, including the pulling of fire alarms and physical assaults on peaceful attendees. Venues are pressured into cancelling women’s rights events, often at the last minute so that alternate venues are difficult to find in a timely fashion. Masculists just cannot stand the idea that women have an equal right to speak for our rights.

There are many more issues in areas like education, child care, and so on where masculists fall short of advocating gender equality, but one thing is clear: in each case where we win gender equality in the future, the only place for masculists will be standing out in the cold, protesting it.

This is why, for equal rights advocates like me, the absolute destruction of masculism is the critical first step in securing equal rights for everyone.